


invisible string (tying you to me)

by oneshortday



Category: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, this is a long fic so i'm putting warnings now and will update as i go, until it becomes real
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:54:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29477283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneshortday/pseuds/oneshortday
Summary: The people of Hyrule haven't needed the legendary Hero in hundreds of years, so when he's born again into a peaceful life, no one notices. But the Hero's soul is unable to rest easy, and it's up to his reincarnation to right the wrongs of his past and reunite him with his other half.
Relationships: Link/Sheik (Legend of Zelda)
Kudos: 6





	invisible string (tying you to me)

**Author's Note:**

> Past lives couldn't ever hold me down  
> Lost love is sweeter when it's finally found --
> 
> TW: emetophobia (Link throws up)

Link sat in his usual place at the milk bar, spinning an empty glass in his hands. His ruffled blond hair fell haphazard over tired eyes, casting a shadow over his features. He brought the glass up to his face and stared at the bottom, the warped wood of the table staring back at him, and sighed. Waving at Talon for another glass, Link forced a smile at the big burly man, and thought _maybe i shouldn’t be giving him my business, since his daughter_ is _the reason i’m here in the first place._

Malon and Zelda were throwing a Valentines Day party -- or, as Zelda insists, just a small get together with a few friends. Yeah, _right_.

So, in a moment of panic, Link had told his two best friends that he was in a relationship. With a girl. That he had a girlfriend. 

A _girlfriend_.

Saying he had a boyfriend would be hard enough to believe, but a _girlfriend?!_ He couldn’t remember the last time he was genuinely interested in a girl. But now he had to find someone crazy enough to be his fake date for the night.

Easy enough, right?

Link contemplated ending the charade, but he’d rather keep his friends' opinions on the good side. Could he say they broke up right before the party, and cash in on being the depressed single on the day of Love? 

_i can’t just show up empty handed now. i’ll never hear the end of it._

He took another drink of the milk and made a face, still not sure why he continues to come to this place when he doesn’t even like milk. 

_how am i supposed to find a girlfriend in under two hours? it’s raining cats and dogs, for goddesses sake… what if i tell them i can’t make it?_ He rested his face in his hands, staring absentmindedly at a spot on the wall. _no, they’d see right through that._

His inner monologue was interrupted when he heard Talon’s gruff voice talking to someone just a few seats away. A melodic voice cut through the air in response, dancing around Link like tiny ballerinas. His eyes followed the ballerinas to find a person more beautiful than he’d ever seen. Dirty blond hair tucked away in a messy braid, draped over a slender shoulder, ruby red eyes watching Talon drone on about his ranch house. 

Link was speechless. Tanned, light brown skin and a lithe form under a giant sweater and jeans, he imagined himself to be in a movie, meeting the love of his life for the first time. Why else would there be little bells going off in his head?

_they’re the perfect girl for the party._ At least, he assumed they were a girl. The only other person Link knew with hair that beautiful was Zelda. 

He stumbled out of his stool, heart suddenly pounding, and made his way to the stranger. _they’re going to call the police on me. this is such a stupid idea, who would ever say yes?_ Link was now only a few feet away from them. _i have to at least try. i can’t let zelda and malon win._ He stuck his sweaty hands in his pockets and closed the distance, his throat constricting with nerves. 

“Hi,” he choked out. 

_fuck._

At first, it seemed as if they didn’t hear what he said -- or, they did hear, and are choosing not to respond. Link briefly considered running out of the bar, but the stranger had already turned to look at him. Brilliant red eyes stared him down. The only other time he’d gotten the Sheikah scrutiny, and that was from Impa, and that was scary enough.

_there’s no way malon and zel are going to believe i’m dating this person. i’m so screwed._

“... Hello.” A voice finally came, fingers brushing sandy hair from their face. “Is there something you need?”

Link felt his knees go weak -- the way they sounded, the Sheikah accent behind their words, it all made his heart stutter (he always was a sucker for the different accents of Hyrule). They were elegant, and charming, and _goddesses,_ were they beautiful. He was intimidated, to say the least. 

Link tried to respond to the question -- _what was the question?_ \-- but his mouth was drier than the Gerudo Desert. He was suddenly very aware of the silence that surrounded them, and the way their eyes bore into him, waiting for a response, blood red daggers, and his tongue _when did my tongue get so big have i always been able to feel it so clearly --_

“I was wondering if you would be my girlfriend?” Link finally blurted, eyes widening as he heard what he said. “Not- not my actual girlfriend,” he let out a nervous laugh as he sat on the stool opposite them. “Just pretend.” The stranger was wearing a white scarf around the bottom of their face, masking most of their emotions, which only made Link’s stomach twist tighter. “Oh,” he said as an afterthought, cocking a smile “my name is Link, by the way.”

He watched the person in front of him for an agonizingly _long_ amount of time, begging the Goddesses for any sort of reaction, until they broke out in a fit of laughter, coming out in soft and muffled blows (more of a series of hard exhales, really).

Link went cold, but soon warmed with a furious blush. He was humiliated, but couldn’t help the smile as it stretched across his face, equal parts nervous and giddy from the stranger’s laughter. Briefly he was distracted by the thoughts racing through his head -- what would they do? Call the police on him? Or maybe get him thrown out of the bar? Link was so lost in his own head he almost didn’t hear their reply.

“Link,” chills shot down his spine. “My name is Sheik.” A pause as Sheik took him in, eyes dancing down his figure. They turned their full body to Link, leaning forward to regard him with a look of casual scrutiny, and Link liked the implications of it. Maybe they wouldn’t turn him down.

“You’re a very charming stranger, Link, but I’m sure you could snag yourself a _real_ girlfriend if you tried.” They said, bringing their glass to their mouth.

Link’s chest puffed at the compliment, doing his best to hide his excitement. “And you’re a beautiful woman, so what d’ya say?” He flashed a toothy grin, but Sheik seemed to choke around their drink at his words. “The thing is,” he tried to salvage it. “my two best friends are throwing a Valentine’s party tonight, and I told them I had a girlfriend to bring because they were making fun of me and I panicked and --” he took a breath. _reel it in, link. this isn’t therapy._

Sheik must have composed themselves while Link was rambling, because they were staring at him with amused eyes. 

“I’m really desperate, and there’s no way I can find a _real_ girlfriend in less than two hours. You can totally say no, of course I know I probably would, but hey! There’s no sense in not trying, am I right?” His speech ended in nervous laughter. Link regretted ever telling Zelda and Malon he was in a relationship. Praying to the Goddesses for strength, he waited for Sheik’s response. 

Sheik took a moment, more confusion and amusement mixing in their eyes. “It sounds… interesting,” he said eventually. “I don’t know how good of a girlfriend I’ll be, but it would be my pleasure… Link.” They drawled, accent thick and almost teasing. Link could see a small smile forming above their scarf.

Surely Link heard them wrong. _they actually agreed? what’s happening?_ He could feel the confusion hot on his face. “Really?” he asked, leaning ever closer to Sheik. Their features were intoxicating, and Link started to stumble over his words. “I honestly thought this was going to end with me getting decked,” he laughed, grabbing Sheik’s hand and squeezing it tight. 

“Mm… I probably would have,” Sheik said. “But you interest me, Link.” Their voice was low, almost inaudible over the soft guitar coming from the bar’s speakers. Link’s heart stuttered.

He laughed, an excuse to cover his face and blush, and pulled Sheik from their seat. To his enjoyment, they let him. 

“My friends are going to love you,” he said. “But, just in case they ask, Malon has been my best friend since our first year of middle school, and we met Zelda our second. I have a horse named Epona, she lives on Lon Lon Ranch, my parents died when I was a baby -- do you want to write this all down?” Link knew he was rambling, but he couldn’t stop the word vomit as it poured from his mouth. He had to make this believable, and something about the stranger beside him comforted him in a way he couldn’t explain. 

“I don’t need to write it down. Sheikah are storytellers, remembering even the smallest of details is second nature to me.” Sheik said, and Link felt a reassuring squeeze on his hand. Listening to Sheik’s voice was like listening to music -- gentle but rough in all the right ways, accent tickling Link’s eardrums, and he knew he’d never get enough of it. Warmth spread through his chest at Sheik’s reassuring words, and he smiled again, elated Sheik was _actually_ going along with his plan. _finally_ , he thought. _i won’t be the only single person at one of zelda’s parties._

_… technically._

Link went to speak, but from their standing position he realized to see Sheik’s face he’d had to look _up_. Suddenly self conscious of his height, Link did his best to straighten his back, but his head still only came to Sheik’s shoulder. He sighed, giving up. 

“Zelda’s place is just around the corner, would you like to leave now?”

Sheik nodded, but stopped just short of the door. “I came here originally to get out of the rain. I don’t suppose you have an umbrella?”

Link cursed under his breath. “No,” he said. “But I can take one if you want.”

“Take?”

“You know, like… steal?” 

Sheik laughed, perplexed. “Asking me out on a fake date _and_ offering to commit a felony for me in the same night? You are certainly one interesting Hylian… But, go on,” they said, gesturing to the open room. 

Link looked around the bar, a sultry and oh so easy tote of umbrellas stood next to them at the door, but Link had to impress his new friend, and he spotted a speckled umbrella hooked onto the back of a chair just to the left of them, a very large man sitting with it. Link looked for other, easier targets, but it seemed the only other umbrellas stood in the tote. 

_it’s now or never,_ he thought, strolling over to the speckled umbrella. His walk was nonchalant, maybe too casual, and he was sweating buckets. Slipping a tube of chapstick in his pocket at the store was one thing, but this was a whole new ballpark. Link waited for the man to lean forward, reaching across his table for the sugar, before making his move. He reached for the umbrella quickly, unhooking it with ease but panicking as the man leaned back in his chair, the handle of the umbrella pressing firm into his shoulder blade. Link felt the color drain from his face, heat on the back of his neck, and he swore he heard Sheik laughing. The man began to turn, and Link didn’t know what to do next.

So, naturally, he tore the umbrella off the back of the chair with a loud _crack_ and yelled at Sheik to run. 

The two burst through the double doors, but not before heavy footfalls sounded behind them, and shouts of _thief_ and _give me back my umbrella_ rang through the tavern. Sheik’s hand was now in his, but a meaty palm was closing in on his shoulder, and he could hear the other patrons confused voices and shouts, and panic bubbled in his chest. Would this be like the scenes Link had read about in his history books, from ancient Hyrule, where citizens caught thieves and hung them by their wrists in the castle courtyard?

But then another voice cut through the din, clear and melodic. “Link, close your eyes!” Sheik shouted to be heard over the rain.

_why do i need to close my eyes? so the final blows of death don’t hurt so much?_

Link barely registered Sheik pulling something from his bag before a blinding light illuminated from the ground by their feet.

And then Link was dying.

He was falling, falling, falling with no support, being tossed through time itself like a ragdoll. His head spun and it felt like his arms and legs were being stretched, enough to be ripped off --

But before Link could lose any limbs, he was grounded and in Sheik’s arms. His eyes were shut tight -- when had he closed them, exactly? 

“You can open your eyes now,” Sheik’s voice came from miles away, but next to him all at the same time. “We should be at least a block away from the tavern. I can only bring us so far away with this, so we have to hurry.” 

_what’s_ **_this_ ** _?_ Link thought, but when he opened his mouth to speak his concerns, he felt it. Saliva pooled in his mouth and there was a fire behind his ears, and the next thing he knew he was doubled over himself, emptying the contents of his stomach onto the side of a building. Link retched, barely able to focus on Sheik’s hand, warm and soothing on his back. 

“Did we just _warp?!”_ Link asked, only just now realizing the flash of light had come from a deku nut. He knew the Sheikah still held some magic from their ancestors, but not enough to warp them and an entire other human being. 

“Yes,” Sheik said softly, but urgently. “But not very far, so we need to hurry.” Link turned woozy eyes to see Sheik holding out a vial of red liquid, the ancient health tonic sloshing around in the small bottle.

Link took it gratefully, swallowing it down quickly. Sheik then offered him a bottle of water from his bag, which Link took with a sheepish smile. He swished the clear liquid through his teeth before spitting it out onto the street, his bearings coming back to him.

“I didn’t know you could still do that,” he said.

“Warp?” Sheik asked, opening the umbrella as he pulled Link away from his mess and hurried him in the opposite direction of the tavern. “Not all Sheikah can.” He explained. “But my aunt trained me from a very young age in ancient Sheikah techniques… She’s the head of our clan, so she can’t let old practices die out.” 

Link nodded in understanding, stumbling a bit. Sheik held tighter onto his hand.

“I shouldn’t have let you try to steal this,” he said, shaking the umbrella a bit. “I’m sorry, Link.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Link said, forcing a cocky grin onto his face. “I totally would have gotten away with it if the umbrella hadn’t gotten caught.”

Sheik laughed softly before the two of them fell into silence, mostly listening for angry shouts of a stolen umbrella.

“... You know,” Sheik broke the silence. “I never knew my parents, either. That’s why my aunt trained me, because they never could.”

“What --”

“I don’t know what happened to them.” 

Link realized how vulnerable Sheik was being with him, so he kept quiet. “I spent much of my early life learning the old Sheikah fighting styles… I don’t know if she did this to keep traditions alive, or to distract me from my parents’ absence.” With a sigh, Sheik changed the tone of their voice to be lighter. “Because of this, I do a lot of gymnastics and train a lot in my free time. But I like music the most,” they felt their bag. “That’s what I go to school for.”  
Link smiled, at a loss for words. “I’m glad you have your aunt,” he said eventually.

Sheik nodded, eyes soft. “Yes… she is stern and a piece of work, but I know she loves me. But… sometimes I wonder if she resents having to raise me when she herself is only two years older than me.”

Silence hung between them again, heavy as they walked. “Sorry,” Sheik murmured. “I don’t know why I said that.” 

Link’s face was soft -- he wanted to tell Sheik that it was okay, that there was a kinship between them, not knowing their parents., but he didn’t know how to get the words out, so he settled with oversharing the truth of his childhood. “I grew up in the Kokiri orphanage,” he said. “I was never adopted, so I lived there until I was 18 and could move into the university’s dorms.”

Sheik gave him a brief, sad look. “At least it seems like Malon and Zelda are your family now.”

“Yeah, they really are,” he smiled. “We’re actually looking for apartments in Kakariko.”

“I’ll help you look,” Sheik said. “That’s where I live.”

The two laughed, the heaviness of their prior conversation melting away. “I’d love to see you fight sometime, Sheik.” Link said, all giddy smiles. “I’m kind of a history nerd, it’s what I’m majoring in, and I’ve always been fascinated by Sheikahn customs and culture. Maybe you can tell me some of the stuff you know?”

“Maybe. The Sheikah are very private people, you know.” 

Link worried at his lip -- had he made Sheik uncomfortable? Were fighting styles so private they couldn’t show an observer? Link cursed himself for being so forward, and the two of them walked in silence for a while. They had slowed their pace from that of a light jog to a stroll, far enough away from Talon’s Milk Bar that neither of them worried about running into the umbrella owner. Sheik’s strides were wide, and it was almost difficult for Link to keep up. 

After almost the fifth minute in silence, Link was desperate for conversation. “You know,” he said. Sheik turned to look at him. “Malon and Zelda are going to love you, so you don’t have to worry about impressing them or anything. They’ll be plenty impressed by me just simply being in a relationship.” Link glanced over at the way Sheik looked at him, gaze burning into the side of his face, something he could only hope was a smile knitted into dirty blond eyebrows. He heard Sheik mumble something under his breath then, undoubtedly in their native language. The sounds danced through one of Link’s ears and right out the other, and despite not knowing what had been said, Link felt a warmth radiate from Sheik’s words, soft spoken and just for them. 

But then he sighed. “I’m sure you’re certain about your friends… though, you barely know me, either. You don’t know how they’ll react to me.” There was a change in their tone, suddenly tight and nervous. 

“If you’re feeling uncomfortable, you can totally back out. I’d completely understand. In fact, it was kinda stupid of me to put you in this position in the first place --”

“Now now,” Sheik shushed him, a smirk playing at what Link could see of their lips. “I can’t leave my poor _boyfriend_ alone at a party, can I?”

They laughed together, quiet, Link’s face rupee red at the mention of the word, and his mind wandered briefly to the idea of Sheik’s tan skin tinted red hot with blush, breathless --

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Link realized they had stopped right in front of Zelda’s door. How long had they been there?  
“Well then,” Link held out his arm for Sheik to grab. “Let the show begin.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is a years old RP my old friend Cheru (@sugarelixir on tumblr) and I wrote and i'm obsessed with it and i finally got around to making it into a fic so. strap in hehe
> 
> (the song i'll be quoting is past lives by borns, title is from taylor swift's song invisible string)


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